10 Best: St. John’s vs DeMatha
Last night I went to DeMatha to see them play St. John’s and it was by far one of the craziest games I have seen all year. It featured many lead changes, technical fouls on both teams for taunting, a half court shot buzzer beater and highlight reel dunks. After all of the craziness the game ended in a 65-62 victory for DeMatha. Here are the 10 best from the game!
MVP: 2019 Justin Moore (DeMatha)
I said before the game that Justin needed to step up tonight since DeMatha did not have 2020 Hunter Dickinson because of the flu and Justin did just that. He finished with a game high 24 points and 7 rebounds for DeMatha. He had some very nice pull-ups from just inside the three point line, he got to the basket and finished with contact which also sent him to the line quite a few times. However, the most important part of his play last night was his defense. He was able to basically make St. John’s best player, Casey Morsell, not a factor in this game.
Play Of The Game: 2018 Tre Wood (St. John’s)
Last night I saw the best dunk I have seen all year. UMass commit, Tre Wood, was brining the ball up the court as he usually does and he saw a clear path to the rim with only one guy under the basket. He took off with his quick speed and posterized Deven Richmond as he was the lone defender under the bucket. With some good comes some bad though, after this play, Tre received a technical foul for taunting.
Best Offensive Performance: 2019 Justin Moore (DeMatha)
As I mentioned before, Justin finished with a game high of 24 points. He was scoring at all three levels as he usually does. It was one his better performances of the year and I believe he needed this type of performance for a confident booster. He was getting to the basket and can play through contact so well. He was also able to get his teammates in the score book as he threw out a couple of assists.
Best Defensive Performance: 2019 Justin Moore (DeMatha)
Justin was just doing it all last night and that is why he won MVP. He held Casey Morsell to very limited action which hurt St. John’s. Casey looked uncomfortable at times and forced some difficult shots and that was purely because of the defense Justin was playing on him.
Best Guy Off The Bench: 2020 Earl Timberlake (DeMatha)
Usually Earl starts but because he was coming off the flu, he came off the bench last night. Earl finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds. He was pretty much unstoppable around the rim and had numerous offensive tip ins for DeMatha. He also had a nice jumper from the elbow area and a good looking deep two point shot with a defender in his face in the the 3rd quarter.
Best Intangibles: 2020 Ishmael Leggett (St. John’s)
Recently picking up an offer from George Washington, Ishmael had a good performance last night doing all of the little things. He finished with 10 points. He was the most impressive on defense as he had a few deflections and steals which led to turnovers for DeMatha. He was also playing lockdown defense on multiple people which caused either a shot clock violation or forced a bad shot. Expect his offer list to increase with his ability to play all around good basketball on both sides of the ball.
Best Under The Radar Performance: 2020 Delonnie Hunt (St. John’s)
This kid is fun to watch every game. He gets up and down the court extremely quick with his speed and can get to the rim easily because of it. He is usually the smallest guy on the court but that doesn’t phase him one bit, as he competes really hard on both sides of the ball. He had one of the other best plays of the game which will be talked about below.
Best Underclassmen: 2020 Earl Timberlake (DeMatha)
Teams usually have trouble stopping Timberlake in the paint area/around the rim and that continued last night. He was so impressive on the offensive glass as half of his points came from offensive tip ins. Right now Earl is number 4 in our 2020 Maryland/DC rankings.
2nd Best Play Of The Game:
At the end of the 3rd quarter 2020 Delonnie Hunt nailed a half court shot at the buzzer to make it a 2 point game going into the 4th quarter. This gave St. John’s a lot of momentum entering the 4th.
3rd Best Play Of The Game:
Early in the 1st quarter, Navy commit, Richard Njoku of St. John’s grabbed a rebound and completely dunked over Carston Kogelnik. After this play happened we knew we were in a for a long night of highlight reel plays and craziness from here on out and that is exactly what happened.